Liveblog: Sony’s pre-E3 2013 press conference

Tune in at 6pm PDT on June 10 for all the latest on the PS4 and Sony's other systems.

Sony undercut its own E3 showing this year by announcing the PlayStation 4 months ahead of time at a press-focused New York event. But there are still plenty of questions surrounding the upcoming system. For instance: What does it look like? Also, what kinds of exclusive games does Sony have planned for the system?

Expect a whole lot of game announcements and live game demos for the PS4 at this press event, as well as plenty of talk about the system's non-gaming features. Activision has said it will be showing off its Bungie-developed Destiny at the press conference, and we're looking forward to finally seeing some gameplay for the massively hyped MMO.

There's an outside chance Sony will announce specific pricing and release date information for the PS4, but it could also wait until later in the year to reveal those nuggets. The PS3 and Vita won't be totally ignored, but they are not going to be Sony's focus this time around.

Monday is stacked with multiple companies and will be hard to follow. That said Nintendo basically has the next day as basically Nintendo Day. They're starting 10AM ET and going hard for the next 12 hours through their Nintendo Direct, twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Given Microsoft's complete clusterfuck for the Xbox One, all Sony has to do is say that it doesn't block used games and the press will be fawning all over it even if it's hot pink and the size of a dumptruck.

I think Sony would win the day if they said something like "New technology, old policies", meaning what was true for the PS3 is true for the PS4.

If publishers want to solve the used game "problem", than they need to start offering downloadable games at a reasonable price. I would much prefer to download my games, but they're often $20+ of what I find at Best Buy or on Amazon. They're not priced to be competitive.

That said, downloaded games can't be traded in or shared with friends. And people accept that because it's an easily understood practical limitation. So long as the game exists on disc, it should be playable wherever the disc is.

I can't honestly see Sony moving away from physical media in any way simply because of Japan itself being such a huge market for them. The Japanese love their first presses and limited editions and that's only possible with physical media (hell, 'I' love getting a first press because you normally get some nice DLC costumes or similar with them). They'll have to find some reasonable middle ground at least.

Also, it really is about time Sony opened up the stores of other countries to purchasers outside of those countries properly, the current system where only PSN store cards can be used is ripe for abuse and IS abused heavily, they really need to either allow foreign cards or just have a direct payment system online to add credit to an activated/linked PSN account. The systems are already region free, it's about time they took that all the way and opened up the store too so we can buy DLC or digital versions without all the current hassles and massive markup. Given the Vita actually went backwards on that front though I don't see it happening

Monday is stacked with multiple companies and will be hard to follow. That said Nintendo basically has the next day as basically Nintendo Day. They're starting 10AM ET and going hard for the next 12 hours through their Nintendo Direct, twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

I'm not sure how productive I'm going to be on those two days.

Other than some game related announcements, I wonder what Nintendo could announce right now that would be compelling.

Monday is stacked with multiple companies and will be hard to follow. That said Nintendo basically has the next day as basically Nintendo Day. They're starting 10AM ET and going hard for the next 12 hours through their Nintendo Direct, twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

I'm not sure how productive I'm going to be on those two days.

Other than some game related announcements, I wonder what Nintendo could announce right now that would be compelling.

Two ideas:1) They announce they're releasing their back catalog for other consoles. I would happily spend $100+ for old Donkey Kongs, Mario Karts, Smash Brothers, etc. Happily. But not on a Nintendo console.

But since that isn't going to happen...

2) A new Mario Kart game. Make this one better than the Wii version (which should be easy) by including every course from all previous Mario Kart games and having an option to turn off the inherent unfairness of things like blue shells and the like.

Honest answers for what would personally interest me. Realistically, I don't think there's anything Nintendo can or will do that we'll find compelling. Unfortunately.

Monday is stacked with multiple companies and will be hard to follow. That said Nintendo basically has the next day as basically Nintendo Day. They're starting 10AM ET and going hard for the next 12 hours through their Nintendo Direct, twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

I'm not sure how productive I'm going to be on those two days.

Other than some game related announcements, I wonder what Nintendo could announce right now that would be compelling.

Well, game announcements is all they really need to be honest. The hardware's cheap enough and can go lower, so really the big thing that they need is software. If that's not compelling you then there's not much reason you'll get it, although the library's insane and hits a ton of genres.

Playable Mario Kart and 3D Mario are known. Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 should be too. They've got an Atlus logo shown in their E3 construction so it's likely they'll talk about both SMT4 and SMT x FE. X should also be there, though for this and SMT x FE, no idea if they would be playable or not. Yoshi's Island Wii U is another big one they seem to want to focus on. I would expect information on Bayonetta 2 as well. Considering the amount of time they're putting into it, you can basically expect just walls of information all through the event, but they just took Tuesday completely for themselves. You can also expect a bunch of stuff on the 3DS too (Mario & Luigi, Pokemon X/Y, Bravery Default...) so yeah. No shortage of anything. Biggest one not mentioned is the newest Super Smash Bros. is going to be talked about and have a few videos. Worth mentioning is that Namco Bandai's working on it and some crossover surprises are expected. The biggest rumored one (and the longest shot but actually quite possible) being Goku. By all means it's doubtful but it just shows the depth of what Namco Bandai can do.

I do fully expect Sony to be the talk of the town on Monday, especially after what Microsoft does, because I think they've got their brains back where it needs to be with Kaz in charge. That said, I also think Nintendo's going to overwhelm everyone else in terms of news for the week because of their more unorthodox style with it. ...Microsoft's probably gonna be a footnote within media in the US but Sony's gonna be the big dog. Predictions we'll see how well it works in a week!

(Also I want some Vita stuff. And a price drop on those cards already.)

Also, it really is about time Sony opened up the stores of other countries to purchasers outside of those countries properly, the current system where only PSN store cards can be used is ripe for abuse and IS abused heavily, they really need to either allow foreign cards or just have a direct payment system online to add credit to an activated/linked PSN account. The systems are already region free, it's about time they took that all the way and opened up the store too so we can buy DLC or digital versions without all the current hassles and massive markup. Given the Vita actually went backwards on that front though I don't see it happening

Well, the Vita came out before the leadership changed at Sony. So I think it's not foolish to have some hope that Sony will surprise us in a good way at the press conference. Fingers crossed!

Hmm, good point, I'd actually forgotten about that. I'll go in cautiously optimistic in that case! Trouble is, new leadership that came about after the Vita means they could also try and re-introduce region locking. I really hope not however, region locking is dumb at the best of times but when I import 99% of what I play from Japan it's going to screw me royally if they change that.

I think Sony would win the day if they said something like "New technology, old policies", meaning what was true for the PS3 is true for the PS4.

If publishers want to solve the used game "problem", than they need to start offering downloadable games at a reasonable price. I would much prefer to download my games, but they're often $20+ of what I find at Best Buy or on Amazon. They're not priced to be competitive.

That said, downloaded games can't be traded in or shared with friends. And people accept that because it's an easily understood practical limitation. So long as the game exists on disc, it should be playable wherever the disc is.

Publishers fail to comprehend that used games benefit them. The sellers gain money that they put towards new games that would otherwise sell in less quantity. Publishers are not losing potential first sales to the second-hand purchaser - e.g. given no alternative but a full-price download they probably couldn't afford it.

Provided that publishers don't try to take the daft EA route with dedicated servers, then online passes as the lifetime of their multiplayer games is artificially extended by the used game market, only to turn off some of their servers for games they unilaterally deem to be 'old' such as American Football games with out of date team rosters, they can rake in plenty of money from whoever currently holds the disc through a supply of remunerative DLC. This is why I think it is perfectly acceptable to factor out these costs and have them all done by the platform owner, as with Xbox LIVE. If Sony were to follow suit I wouldn't mind in the slightest, just don't price gouge on the games themselves, especially if they are digital downloads lacking the costs of packaging, distribution and paid staff in heated bricks and mortar shops. AAA next-generation downloads may end up roughly the same price as boxed games are today. I hope Amazon are wrong about them each being £90.

Given Microsoft's complete clusterfuck for the Xbox One, all Sony has to do is say that it doesn't block used games and the press will be fawning all over it even if it's hot pink and the size of a dumptruck.

I was under the impression that they aren't doing this is already confirmed (or at the very least they seem to be leaving it to the publishers).

Pretty much all they have to stick with here is... no online requirement (which it turn makes blocking used games very difficult), and no requirement to have the "Eye" plugged in to make the console work (particularly after this government spying scandal) and I suspect that will be enough to sway a great number of people who are on the fence.

Monday is stacked with multiple companies and will be hard to follow. That said Nintendo basically has the next day as basically Nintendo Day. They're starting 10AM ET and going hard for the next 12 hours through their Nintendo Direct, twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

I'm not sure how productive I'm going to be on those two days.

Other than some game related announcements, I wonder what Nintendo could announce right now that would be compelling.

Uh probably we are getting out of hardware and taking mario and company cross platformI love nintendo games and the wii u is actualy kinda neat but get out of the hardware buisness that model is so 2000 so software. you wont have to poor a ton of money into r&d and then loose a fortune...

I don't mind paying Sony for PSN. I think they will have to charge for it, but they will have told EA that they will provide the servers for their games - therefore, no more need for Online Passes, no older sports games losing support. Expect the console to be shockingly cheap compared to ONE. Yet, everyone will probably pay $100 per year for online multiplayer and the odd freebie. They may even support a rental model with a multiplayer game having a fixed-rate monthy subscription, but free DLC as a thank you to a loyal community and an incentive to latecomers, as well as a 24 hour rental of discontinuous play time for campaigns which would allow you to rent multiple (episodic) single-player games and not be under time pressure to complete one before you started another, you could mix them. There could be something similar to Net Yarouze for independents with personal computers, just like Apple give away Xcode to budding iPad developers. Used games will be no different than with the PS3 and games can be played from disc when offline. People need to raise money from the sale of games they have finished with to fund the purchase of new games and the second-hand purchaser couldn't have afforded it if it hadn't decreased in value, so they are not a potential lost first sale. Indeed, Sony and the competition of the used game market will encourage publishers to drop the prices of their single player downloads and 24 hour rentals, over time...trying to catch the "Long Tail".

Has neither of the groups addressed 3D gaming? That seems like a huge lapse, there's no way I'd consider going back to 2D after getting used to 3D, and there's no way I'd consider a console that can't render 1080p60 3D.

And... the XBOX ONE just had two nails in the coffin. Just need to hit at or below $499 and you can probably start throwing dirt on the XBOX ONE (those not watching. No used game restrictions, no online check in).

Yeah, in the midst of all those shots at Microsoft, I noticed the slide for Playstation Plus said "Immersive Online Multiplayer" on the bottom. Goodbye, free multiplayer (isn't this one of the bigger complaints against Microsoft at the moment? How people would never pay for it, et cetera?). I wonder how people will say that suddenly, multiplayer has a real value that they're happy to pay for.

Ah well, I guess when the alternative is Microsoft's system, suddenly having to pay for multiplayer isn't quite as bad.

Yeah, in the midst of all those shots at Microsoft, I noticed the slide for Playstation Plus said "Immersive Online Multiplayer" on the bottom. Goodbye, free multiplayer (isn't this one of the bigger complaints against Microsoft at the moment? How people would never pay for it, et cetera?). I wonder how people will say that suddenly, multiplayer has a real value that they're happy to pay for.

Ah well, I guess when the alternative is Microsoft's system, suddenly having to pay for multiplayer isn't quite as bad.

I was dead against the idea of paying for multi-player (as per XBox Live), but then I rarely play multi-player.

Despite not being keen on a 'paid' service, I did end up playing for PSN Plus. But that easily paid for itself with free games (Arkam City, Deus Ex and Borderlands were just 3 of the best). If they keep releasing full games for free to Plus members, I'll keep subscribing and it won't affect me at all.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.